HELLRAISER: DEADER is the latest, most terrifying chapter in the wildly frightening HELLRAISER legacy! Once again, the ultimate evil -- the dreaded Pinhead (Doug Bradley -- HELLRAISER franchise) -- leads an army of the dea... more &raquod who come back to life with a bloodthirsty vengeance! For an undercover reporter (Kari Wuhrer -- PROPHECY: UPRISING) who becomes entangled with the deadly underground group responsible for the malevolent resurrections, any moment could be her last! With Pinhead in all his gory glory, the thrilling villain you love to fear delivers another hellish nightmare you'll never forget!&laquo less

Member Movie Reviews

Keith A. (Keefer522) Reviewed on 10/8/2013...

Seventh 'Hellraiser' flick stars former MTV babe Kari Wuhrer as a reporter sent to Romania (?) to investigate a secret cult of so-called 'Deaders' - people who seem to have the power to bring the dead back to life. Of course, a certain fella by the name of Pinhead doesn't particularly like these cultists treading on HIS turf, and Kari ends up caught in the middle of a nasty fight between the two.

This is a stylish, extremely gory and disturbing flick, unfortunately it didn't feel much like a "Hellraiser" film, since Pinhead's role is limited to a couple of glorified cameos.

There are far better entries in this series (i.e the first two), but you could also do worse (i.e. "Inferno").

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

James B. (wandersoul73) from TYLER, TX Reviewed on 6/8/2009...

Back again for more bloodletting. Rip and tear!

1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Movie Reviews

Stronger then the last few Hellraiser Movies

R. Stringini | Addison, IL United States | 06/08/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I went in to this movie with really low expectations. I had not been to happy with the last few Hellraiser films, mainly because they didn't feel like Hellraiser movies at all. Well, this one still feels distant from the core Hellraiser material, but it's nowhere near as far out as parts five and six.

Actually, once Pinhead and the other cenobites show up, it makes sense. He isn't in the movie much, and focus is more on the lead actress just trying to understand what she had gotten herself in to. It works for the most part.

I was surprised at how gritty this movie was as well. The violence is intense, and there is a good deal of nudity (mostly female, but a bit of male). The sexual edge that was present in the original Hellraiser is back.

Die hard Hellraiser fans will probably hate this movie. It is way more pulpy in feel. It is grittier than Inferno and Hellseeker, but it still lacks the down to earth feel of the first movie, or the fairy tale horror of the second. Still, it works, and delivers in the disturbing imagery, hardcore gore, dark sexuality, and all while keeping some decent acting and a fairly strong script. Not bad at all."

Very Dark, Very Disturbing Hellraiser Chapter

Stephen B. O'Blenis | Nova Scotia, Canada | 07/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The grittiest and bleakest of the "Hellraiser" saga - in everything from the kind of lighting used to the frequent usage of newspaper/'real-life' type horrors - drug addiction, decaying city slums, suicide, etc. - this is a new feel for the series, and it's a step back up from the good-but-not-great "Hellseeker", although not on level with any of the first five movies.

A newspaper reporter (Kari Wuhrer) who specializes in reporting on - or sensationalizing, depending on your point of view - the above type of happening, receives a videotape purporting to show the suicide and apparant resurrection of a member of a cult called the 'Deaders' and is dispatched by her paper to Romania to investigate. It feels kind of good to take the Hellraiser mythos to Romania, home of Transylvania and thus of Dracula and assorted other movie monsters; though one immediately noticeable flaw is how few people in the movie speak Romanian. I know Europe has a higher multilingual rate than North America, but still...you hear maybe fifteen words of Romanian from bit players and everybody else uses fluent English exclusively. There are no horror movies that I know of filmed in this language and this would have been a great opportunity to give Romanian fans one that's about half in their language (with subtitles of course), half in English. Anyway...

The mood gets darker and bleaker as things move into the rundown sections of Romania, not 'horror-dark' but 'mega-gloomy/nihilistic-dark' and it's a credit to the film's makers that it doesn't veer into the territory of being downright depressing, but avoids that trap and uses the bleakness to its advantage (I feel that 'bleak' is one of the hardest atmospheres to use effectively in a movie). The Deader cult is in possession of one of the puzzle boxes, and a plus of the movie is that it actually touches on something mentioned in the very first movie that's never been followed up on until now. The box can, most fans will probably remember, be manipulated into Configurations other than Lament, and can apparantly open doors to a number of realities, not all of them nearly so hellish as that which we've seen. In the first movie Pinhead said that in some cultures they (the Cennobites) are perceived as angels, in other demons. Okay, we've certainly seen the demonic side of things but precious little that anybody would think of as 'angelic'. "Hellraiser: Deader" only runs along the surface of this new ground, but it is an opening. This whole line of other realms/other perceptions is something I'd like to see explored further somewhere down the line. If a user opens a different configuration, do the Cennobites emerge less hostile and 'nicer'? Or are there cults or cultures out there that consider the Cennobites in the form we've seen them to be angels? (What the heck would their demons be like?!?) Are there configurations that will summon forth beings other than Cennobites? If you watch the origin of the boxes in "Bloodline" the answer to that last one would seem to be no, but then again if you look at things from a different angle, perhaps it could be. A passage was built that opens into, apparantly, Hell - could the passage also function - unintentionally? or as a defence backup? You have to watch "Bloodline" and decide for yourself I guess - as a door to and from other places (or times)? And you have to look at what the maker knew and what he didn't know about his assignment. There's a wealth of material here to explore if one chooses to take it up.

Which has little directly to do with "Deader", except to note that it's gotten the ball rolling in these new directions. And while it's done it, it's offered some new ways to look at things (subjectively; it hinted at possible new interpretations without actually contradicting anything from before) and it's carved itself out a nice niche in the Hellraiser mythos as a distinctly grim, and very worthy, chapter in the series."

One of the best in the series.

Kircher | Los Angeles, ca | 06/06/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Hellraiser: Deader continues to take the franchise in the direction that Hellseeker did, with a darker tale of morality that Clive Barker had intended for the series. Strong story, strong visuals, strong cast. One of the best horror movies to come out this year.

The scare filled plot is full of twists and turns while continuing to expand on Barker's mythology with some nice inside winks to longtime fans.

True Hellraiser fans will put this in their top three along with Hellraiser and Hellbound followed closely by Hellseeker.

Fans of the cheesier Hellraiser 3 & 4 may be dissappointed in less Pinhead, but less definitely is more in this latest installment given 3 out of four stars from Fangoria Magazine."

Deader...Or Just Plain Dead?

RDU | Knoxville, TN United States | 03/08/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Just like the "Changeling," I remember how much I loved the original "Hellraiser" when I was growing up. Along with its authenticity and intense gore, it had a killer plot that one rarely ever sees in horror films. Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" was originally not intended to be the progenitor of seven (or is it eight) cheap, slasher-based sequels. Not to say that I'm totally dissing the films, especially since they're much more intricate and well made than any "Jason" or "I Still Know What You Did 'Two Summers Ago'" sequels. Hellraiser itself was meant to be a human-based, psychological thriller where demons like Pinhead existed merely to shed light on the film's central theme- -the dangers of mankind's unchecked desires.

Hence, "Deader" comes out straight to DVD. Of course, no one expects too much from a straight to DVD/video release. However, "Deader" exhibits a great deal of potential that unfortunately is never realized. The first two-thirds of the film are very interesting...A bold, yet rather self-destructive reporter with a dark, hidden past is sent out to investigate a cult commonly referred to as the "Deaders."

Throughout the film, the only thing that is for certain about the cult is that its members are led to commit suicide, and are then inexplicably raised from the dead. Naturally, along with the mystery behind the Deader cult comes the interminable Pinhead and the famous puzzle box found in all the Hellraiser films. The box itself is known as the Lament Configuration.

Apparently, the creator of the original box (the box's origins/creator are revealed in "Hellraiser 4: Bloodline") is the great-grandfather of the leader of the Deader cult. So not only does he raise his followers from the dead, the cult leader basically lures them into opening the puzzle box and then brings them back. But then...it doesn't really make sense that a substantial mass of people can open the box and then go back to the real world without being tortured or even taken down to hell by Pinhead and the other Cenobites.

What's more, any lucid explanations pertaining to how the cult leader can bring his followers back from the dead are NEVER given. Despite a few cryptic hints, the film never explains why the cult leader really wants to kill people and bring them back, only to become a bunch of rotting, corpsy-looking sycophants. More importantly, the film doesn't give enough clues as to how the cult leader's plans coincide with hell, Pinhead, and the puzzle box.

All in all, this has the makings of a great horror film, yet the end sort of makes you feel like you've just sat through one big 90 minute tease. I give kudos to the guys who tried to make this low-budget sequel. After all, from what I hear the director (or whoever) may have simply run out of money to fully complete the film. But like most people, I don't really enjoy being teased. So in the end, I think "Deader" should just remain dead."